'''References''' are the cornerstone of any serious encyclopedia. Though much of our old content remains without references, '''[[Tolkien Gateway: About|Tolkien Gateway]]''' wishes to properly credit its facts. This way, fanon and overinterpretation can be properly identified as such, and omitted.

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For the time being, see [[User:Ederchil/Sandbox]] for details and comments.

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==General rules==

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::''See also: [[Canon]]''

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As to what counts as a reliable source, in the tightest sense it is simple: primary material. From there, we have secondary and "semi-secondary".

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;Semi-secondary

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Semi-secondary, as we call it for the sake of convenience, are texts by Tolkien that are about Middle-earth; these could be ''[[The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien]]'', but also material published in ''[[Vinyar Tengwar]]'' or ''[[Parma Eldalamberon]]''.

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;Secondary

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Secondary texts are texts about Tolkien's work by other authors. We have a short rule for it: if they cite primary, we cite primary, and if they come up with original research, we cite them.

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==Referencing==

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===How To===

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[[Tolkien Gateway:About|Tolkien Gateway]] uses, like most wiki-based encyclopedia's, the [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Cite/Cite.php Cite/Cite extension]. A short how-to:

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With this method, sources are cited '''within''' the text. They appear wherever you type "<nowiki>{{references}}</nowiki>".

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<pre><nowiki>This is the text you type.<ref>And this is the source</ref></nowiki></pre>

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The text in between the <nowiki><ref></nowiki>-tags appears in the References section. These tags can be named for reuse:

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<pre><nowiki>This is the text you type.<ref name="One">And this is source number one</ref></nowiki>

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<nowiki>Then, you use something with another source,<ref>Like this one</ref>,</nowiki><nowiki> before returning

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to the first one.<ref name="One"/></nowiki></pre>

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===Shortcuts===

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:''See also [[:Category:Citation templates]]''

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The most common sources have templates that can be used to write out references automatically:

*Leave a space between "p." (or "pp.") and the page number ''(Example: "p. 20")''

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*Avoid adding a period/full stop at the end of the tag line ''(Example: "<nowiki><ref>{{HM|RC}}, p. 20</ref></nowiki>")''

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*Place the tag line ''after'' the [[Wikipedia:Punctuation|punctuation mark]]. However, an exception could be if you want to give a reference for a certain linguistic form of a word (or something similar).

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==Questionable statements==

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Questionable statements can be challenged with the <nowiki>{{fact}}</nowiki> template. Fanon, conjecture and overinterpretation that goes unreferenced can be deleted on sight.

[[Category:Help]]

[[Category:Help]]

Revision as of 17:20, 16 March 2012

References are the cornerstone of any serious encyclopedia. Though much of our old content remains without references, Tolkien Gateway wishes to properly credit its facts. This way, fanon and overinterpretation can be properly identified as such, and omitted.